Portland Thorns has been constantly making waves in the NWSL with Sophia Smith leading the line from the front. Known for her polished finishing traits and link-up, Smith is not a new name to be on the headlines. However, the focus remained on her injury updates for a few weeks. Amidst the rumors of her absence, Emma Hayes confirmed Smith’s return a few days before the game.“I’ve been assured by Portland and by Soph that if she comes through this weekend, there should be no problem.” 

Her fabled return delivered in grand fashion as she appeared in the Portland Thorns vs. Angel City game and rocked by scoring a goal and doubling the Thorn’s lead in the 26th minute. However, yesterday’s game has raised many eyebrows owing to a controversial call! Smith was flagged for offside in the 22nd minute of the game.

After which she couldn’t resist and posted a clip of that exact moment from the game on X. “Is this offsides? bc at this point idk what offside means,” Smith wrote as a caption. By posting this, she called out blunders in the judgment of NWSL referees. Although it was an official decision, we can’t argue on that, but it looks like Smith was not even close to offsides. It was clearly onside!

Even her fans are angry with NWSL’s decision and lashed out in the comment box of Smith’s post. “Looked ok to Mr. I’ve never had much respect for NWSL refs. The league needs to work on that,” one of them commented under Sofia’s post. Added to that, along with Smith, the Thorns girls made the 3-0 win over Angel City memorable for the fans.

Sophia Smith rose to the occasion against Angel City

Angel City wrapped up the 2024 season with a heartbreaking 3-0 loss to Portland Thorns. The Portland girls took charge of the game from the start. Quite early in the game, the goalkeeper DiDi Haracic saved a pass by Morgan Weaver into the box for Sophia Smith. It was one of the breathtaking moments when Smith took an angled shot, but the goalkeeper dropped to her knees and defender Sarah Gornded cleared the pigskin away in the eighth minute.

Moving forward, Smith flexed her skills one more time as she sprinted up the left wing and threw a shot outside of the six-yard box. Although at first her fans were disappointed when Haracic blocked the shot, later the shot rebounded and went to Christine Sinclair, who fired a left-footed shot straight into the net.

Finally, in the 26th minute of the game, Sofia Smith made her mark by making a run through the left-half space and kicking a left-footed shot making it 2-0. Besides that, this game will also be remembered as the senior Christine Sinclair’s last game of her career. Apart from that, if you watched the clip shared by Smith, let us know in the comments whom you are supporting. Smith’s witty post or the referees’ offside judgment?